How Much Does a Full-Service Moving Company Cost?

Published on September 3, 2026 | Written by Alec Pow
This article was researched using 14 sources. See our methodology and corrections policy.

A full-service moving company can pack household goods, protect furniture, load the truck, transport the shipment, and unload at the destination. Angi’s July 2026 local-move figures place local professional moves at $876 to $2,549, with an average near $1,696, and long-distance moves at $2,700 to $10,000 or more. Crew time, shipment size, distance, packing scope, and access explain much of that spread.

The bill can combine crew labor, transportation, packing materials, packing or unpacking service, valuation coverage, storage, specialty handling, and access work. Exact totals are quote-based because the mover needs the shipment inventory, addresses, requested services, building conditions, and move date before it can price the project with useful precision.

Full-service moving sits between DIY truck rental and freight-style transport. Allied Van Lines, Mayflower, and North American Van Lines represent carrier-led options, while U-Haul represents the self-drive substitute that leaves loading, driving, and unloading with the household. The project links the customer, moving crew, carrier, truck, household-goods inventory, packing materials, valuation coverage, pickup and delivery addresses, storage, and specialty handling. Local jobs lean on crew hours and access. Interstate jobs add shipment size, route distance, delivery conditions, and the carrier or broker arrangement.

How Much Does a Full-Service Moving Company Cost?

• Entry $876 to $2,549 (at $30 per hour, earning that amount would take about 0.7 to 2.1 full-time workweeks, before taxes) for the cited 2026 local-move range.
• Mid About $1,696 for the cited local-move average.
• All-in $2,700 to $10,000 or more for the cited long-distance range.

What we verified

• Checked FMCSA’s April 2026 guidance, which distinguishes movers from brokers and states that carriers transport household goods while brokers arrange transportation.
• Confirmed that FMCSA requires the federal rights booklet before an interstate move and applies that requirement to movers and brokers.
• Cross-referenced Allied Van Lines, which reports 2026 long-distance benchmarks of about $4,500 for a smaller one-bedroom household moving at least 1,000 miles and about $6,300 for a two- to three-bedroom household.

What full-service movers handle

What you’re actually buying

A full-service move transfers much of the physical relocation work to a professional crew. The mover can prepare furniture, load household goods, transport the shipment, unload it at the new address, place furniture in rooms, and provide packing or unpacking when those services are selected.

Mayflower, on a page accessed August 2026, lists loading and transportation, unloading, protection, appliance transport, optional packing, storage, specialty handling, debris removal, and vehicle shipping among its available services.

A rental vehicle is different because the household remains responsible for loading, driving, unloading, fuel, and much of the planning. A local hauling option such as short truck rental also supplies transportation capacity rather than a household-moving crew. Portable containers split the work another way, since the customer can load over several days and leave road transport to the container provider.

The contract should state which tasks belong to the mover. Packing, unpacking, storage, appliance connections, specialty crating, and debris pickup are not interchangeable services.

Local and interstate quotes

One national figure can hide the gap between a short apartment move and a packed interstate household. Move.org places full-service professional moving from $1,200 (about 1 full-time workweek at $30 per hour) up to $29,000 on its April 2026 page. Its distance examples for three-bedroom homes come from hundreds of quotes gathered in 2024, so those figures are historical benchmarks rather than fresh 2026 quotes.

Move profile	Published figure	Data context
Full-service professional move	$1,200 to $29,000	Current Move.org page published April 2026
Three-bedroom, under 400 miles	$3,036	2024 quote sample
Three-bedroom, 800 to 1,200 miles	$9,340	2024 quote sample
Three-bedroom, over 2,000 miles	$18,400	2024 quote sample

For a three-bedroom shipment, that historical sample moves from $3,036 at under 400 miles to $18,400 beyond 2,000 miles, a large change before differences in inventory, packing, building access, storage, or specialty items enter the quote. Local jobs instead can rise because a crew needs another hour or another worker.

Three moving jobs

Published house-size figures show how the primary cost driver can change even when the buyer keeps the same service category. North American Van Lines places four-bedroom local moves from about $1,800 (about 1.5 full-time workweeks at $30 per hour), moves beyond 2,500 miles above $9,400, and professional packing at about $280 to $2,200 or more in its 2026 guide.

Local case. A four-bedroom household moving nearby may start around the cited $1,800 level. Household size is the main driver in this case because more rooms can mean additional furniture, cartons, loading time, and crew capacity even though the driving distance remains short.

Distance case. Keep the home at four bedrooms but move it beyond 2,500 miles. The cited figure can exceed $9,400. Route length now becomes the primary driver alongside shipment weight, so the same inventory carries a much larger transport component.

Packing case. Keep the route manageable but hand the boxing work to the crew. The cited packing range of $280 to $2,200 or more shows how service scope can become the main driver without adding a mile to the move.

Packing, tips, and quote changes

Full-service does not mean every optional task has one flat national charge. Professional packing is a separate spending category in many quotes. Move.org’s 2025 data puts professional packing labor at $40 to $200 per hour, with a one-bedroom home near $270 to $550 and a three-bedroom home near $1,000 to $2,200.

Inventory changes matter too. FMCSA says extra goods or services discovered before loading can lead to a revised written estimate. For a nonbinding estimate, the mover may not collect above 110 percent of the estimate at destination for the listed services and quantities. Certain impracticable-operation charges collected at delivery are capped at 15 percent of the other charges due there, with the rest billed later.

An itemized local-move total

Local moving rates are commonly quoted by worker and hour. Forbes Home, in its January 2026 update, places local mover hourly rates at $40 to $80 per hour per mover, with some needs or locations reaching $150. A customer still needs a company quote because minimum hours, travel time, truck charges, access work, and included equipment can alter the structure.

Worked total

• Three movers for the first five hours equals $600 to $1,200.
• One additional hour for the same three-person crew adds $120 to $240.
• Six crew hours produce a labor total of $720 to $1,440.

The arithmetic uses only the cited $40 to $80 hourly range. Three workers multiplied by six hours creates 18 worker-hours, and 18 multiplied by $40 or $80 produces $720 to $1,440. The difference between those endpoints is $720, showing why the local hourly rate matters almost as much as the scheduled duration.

This example excludes packing, gratuity, storage, and specialty-item work. Those charges belong on separate quote lines rather than being silently folded into the labor illustration.

Crew time vs boxes

The trade is labor. Local movers may bill by worker and hour, while materials and optional services add separate cost layers. Extra Space Storage, in its December 2025 update, places professional moving labor around $25 to $50 per hour per mover. It also notes that local rates may include a truck, short-distance fuel, pads, and straps, with travel fees, stairs, long carries, or heavy-item work potentially treated separately.

Using that cited labor rate, four movers working seven hours create 28 worker-hours. Multiplying 28 by $25 gives $700, and multiplying it by $50 gives $1,400. That calculation isolates crew labor. It does not assign invented prices to cartons, tape, mattress bags, wardrobe boxes, specialty crating, or packing service.

A customer comparing a full-service quote with a short-haul truck option should separate those buckets. A low vehicle charge does not buy packing or loading labor, and a mover’s labor figure may cover equipment that a DIY renter must obtain separately.

The same inventory, a different quote

Access changes the clock. Two households can own a similar amount of furniture yet receive different quotes because the crew’s path from the residence to the truck is different, and because the requested date can sit in a busier part of the moving calendar. A ground-floor suburban house with a driveway gives movers a short loading path.

A high-floor apartment can require an elevator reservation, repeated elevator trips, a long hallway carry, restricted loading hours, street parking, or a smaller vehicle that can reach the entrance. Those conditions affect crew time even when the shipment itself does not change.

The pickup location matters as much as the destination, so both addresses should be described before the quote is accepted. A mover that surveys the home can record stairs, bulky pieces, parking limits, storage needs, packing selections, and the likely route between the door and the truck rather than discovering them after the crew arrives.

Date selection can move the quote too. Mayflower, on a page accessed August 2026, identifies May through September as its peak-season period and says move date, distance, home size, shipment weight, add-ons, protection, and storage can affect a quote. Its process uses an in-home or virtual survey before the formal quote is issued.

For quote comparisons, use the same inventory, addresses, requested services, access notes, and move date with each company. Otherwise, a lower figure may simply describe less work.

Who this cost makes sense for

Paying for a moving crew has the clearest value when the household wants to transfer packing, heavy lifting, truck loading, driving, and unloading to a contractor. The alternative can be much cheaper before labor is counted. Forbes Home’s July 2026 review places moving-truck rental costs at an average of $100 per day, with published daily figures from $20 to $250.

Makes sense if

• The home contains heavy furniture, many cartons, stairs, or difficult carries.
• The customer does not want to load, drive, and unload a truck.
• The move has a firm pickup schedule and little time for repeated trips.
• Packing and furniture preparation need to be completed by the same crew.

Doesn’t make sense if

• The shipment fits comfortably into a small rental vehicle.
• The household can provide its own loading labor and driver.
• A flexible schedule makes rental-truck moving costs easier to absorb.

Answers to Common Questions

Does full-service moving include packing?

It can, but packing should be identified in the service agreement. Some movers treat packing and unpacking as selections added to loading, transportation, and unloading.

Are local movers charged by the hour?

Hourly crew billing is common for local jobs. The quote can also contain minimum time, travel, equipment, packing, or access-related charges, so the hourly figure alone may not equal the final bill.

Why can an interstate quote change?

Shipment inventory, selected services, weight, route, pickup conditions, delivery conditions, storage, and the type of estimate can affect the amount owed. Changes should be documented rather than left to an informal verbal agreement.

Is a full-service mover cheaper than renting a truck?

The rental vehicle can have a much lower direct charge, but the customer takes responsibility for driving and much of the labor. Comparing the two choices requires matching the same tasks, not only the vehicle charge against the mover’s complete service bill.